The weekend mustered lukewarm business at the box office thanks to weak choices on offer

It goes without saying that the next big thing in Bollywood has to be Dhoom 3, which is set to release on Friday.

Given the scale of this upcoming film -- and the names attached to it -- it's surprising how the last week's two releases fared over the past weekend. They had no big banners to compete with and yet came out disappointingly low.

Although Dimple Kapadia's What The Fish and Sachiin Joshi-Sunny Leone starrer Jackpot didn't leave any stones unturned as far as marketing is concerned, the aam janta showed indifference at the marquee. `My stats show that What The Fish didn't even cross Rs 1 crore mark over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Compared to it, Jackpot did relatively well, at about Rs 3 crore. Both were clear commercial washouts,` says Rajesh Thadani, a city-based exhibitor.

A similar sentiment is conveyed by our well-placed source from a multiplex. `Jackpot spent a huge amount on publicity so we can safely assume that it won't recover much in return. There's no point in talking about What The Fish.`


Amod Mehra states that it was a dull weekend for theatre owners and exhibitors. `In fact, I'd say Lucky Kabootar was lucky that it didn't release,` adds trade analyst, about the film which had its premiere cancelled at the last minute. According to him, R...Rajkumar made hay while others didn't shine. `The Prabhu Dheva film is doing surprisingly well throughout the Hindi-speaking belt, especially in the single screens. The multiplex have rejected it.`

Among the Hollywood releases -- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Oldboy -- the former emerged winner, according to the trade. However, it couldn't harness the lull in the Bollywood space.